Highways and Byways in LincolnshireRawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
History
Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire
Rawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
Lincolnshire (England) -- Description and travel
_Denton Manor_, the seat of Sir C. G. E. Welby, Bart., is just beyond
Harlaxton, and there one might once have seen a fine old manor house,
now replaced by a large modern hall of fine proportions; the work is by
Sir A. W. Blomfield, good in design and detail, and containing a notable
collection both of furniture and pictures. St. Christopher’s Well, a
chalybeate spring, is in the park, and in the restored church are a good
recumbent effigy of John Blyth, 1602, and a figure of Richard Welby,
1713, with angels carefully planting a crown on his wig. After this the
road passes into Leicestershire, so we turn to the right and in less than
four miles, halfway between the Melton road and the Nottingham road,
and more in Leicestershire than in Lincolnshire, we come to _Belvoir
Castle_. The mound on which it stands is over the border and is not a
natural height, but was thrown up on a spur of the wold as early as
the eleventh century by Robert de Todeni, who thence became known as
Robert de Belvedeir. Certainly the pile is grandly placed, and has a
sort of Windsor Castle appearance from all the country round. It has
been in possession of the Manners family now for four hundred years. The
celebrated Marquis of Granby, a name well known in all the neighbourhood
as a public-house sign, was son of the third Duke. He was “Col. of the
Leicester Blues” in 1745, and General and Commander-in-Chief of the
British contingent at Minden, where the English and German forces, under
the Duke of Brunswick, defeated the French in 1759, and he distinguished
himself in battle in each of the three following years. The castle,
destroyed by order of Parliament in the civil wars, was rebuilt in 1668,
and again in 1801, but a fire having destroyed part of it in 1816 it was
restored at the worst of all architectural periods, so that at a near
view it does not fulfil the expectation raised by its grand appearance
when seen from a distance. As at Windsor there is a very fine “Guard
Room,” and many large rooms hung with tapestry or pictures, and a picture
gallery of unusual excellence. The Duchess’s garden in spring is one of
the finest horticultural sights in the kingdom. The greater part of the
castle is most liberally thrown open daily to the public.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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